Dorothy finished her Highland Park and sighed. She’d sat at the kitchen table as dusk crept across the sky, the room becoming gloomy around her. It was strange to have the house to herself, except for the six bodies downstairs in the fridges. Jenny was at Fiona’s house with the police following the message from Craig. What the hell was he up to? Dorothy had fallen for his charisma like everyone else at the start, but he was unhinged. And poor wee Sophia. Hannah and Indy had gone out for dinner with Indy’s grandparents, life trundling on with Indy’s parents in the fridges downstairs. And Abi was out with Kazuko and Taylor seeing another three-band bill at Sneaky’s. Dorothy admired the girl’s ability to switch off the mayhem of her life, or maybe tonight was just a moment of relief.
Schrödinger came to her from the window seat, weaved his way around her legs as she stroked him. The cat had taken a beating from Craig too, in this very room, on one of the worst nights of Dorothy’s life. She realised she hadn’t seen Einstein in a while, usually he followed Schrödinger like a shadow. They had obvious affection for each other, even if Schrödinger hid it in typical cat style.
‘Where’s your pal, eh?’ she said, running her hand along his tail.
She looked out of the window at the gloaming creeping from the east. She felt the whisky in her veins and thought of her husband’s ashes scattered on the links. She stood and grabbed the dog’s lead and went to the doorway.
‘Einstein?’
She waited a moment, nothing. There was usually the thud and clack of paws on the floor, but she stood in silence.
She went downstairs, the light gloomier here.
‘Einstein?’
She walked through the front rooms, then to the embalming room and workshop. The garage door was ajar, shit, he’d got out. Normally not a problem but with this goddamn jaguar around Dorothy felt a tightness in her chest.
She went to a locker in the garage and opened it. She pulled out a large-headed gold club from Jim’s old bag, felt the heft of it, and went outside.
‘Einstein?’
It was warm, no wind, sweeping shade from the oak and pine, the sky purple above. She walked around the garden, no sign.
‘Einstein.’ This was louder, anxiety creeping into her voice.
She left the garden and went round the corner to Bruntsfield Links. Over to the left was where the dog found the foot. It seemed a lifetime ago, but was just over a week.
There were a few people on the paths through the park, walking or cycling, heading to the bars or home, shadows moving in the soft light. She waited till her eyes grew accustomed, looked around.
‘Einstein.’ This was a proper shout, drawing attention from a young couple to her left.
She looked the other way, into the southeast corner of the links. There was no path there, and the streetlights on Whitehouse Loan hadn’t come on yet.
She thought she saw movement and walked that way, glancing up at her own kitchen window as she passed, wondering if Schrödinger was still sitting there. She gripped the golf club, the driver’s heavy head making it swing like a pendulum at her side.
The shape resolved in front of her and she sighed with relief at Einstein, tail wagging, trotting towards her. As he got closer she realised he had something in his mouth, and as the dog reached her she felt her blood freeze.
‘Drop it,’ she said.
He did it straight away, tail thumping against the grass.
It was another foot. Goddamn it to hell, another fucking human foot. She leaned in and saw it was a right foot. What the hell was it with this dog?
‘Where did you find this?’
She attached the lead to his collar, pulled him back the way he’d come, leaving the foot on the grass. She’d get it on the way back, she couldn’t be carrying feet all over the place.
They walked fifty yards then Einstein stopped, barked into the gloom around the trees in the corner.
‘What is it?’
Einstein got down on his haunches and kept barking, tail flat on the ground.
Dorothy looked from the dog to the trees. She stared hard at the dark space between the trunks. She switched her grip on the golf club so that she could swing it more easily.
Einstein was still barking, increasingly anxious, his nerves transmitting through the ether to her heart.
She looked back at the trees and saw two yellow eyes then a huge square face followed by a rippling mass of muscle as the jaguar emerged from the grass, head still, staring at her as it placed its paws one in front of the other.
‘Shit,’ Dorothy said. She turned to Einstein. ‘Hush.’
Einstein didn’t listen, kept barking, his body flat to the ground. Dorothy glanced behind her, it was about a hundred yards back to her garden, another twenty yards into the house. She was seventy-one years old, for God’s sake.
‘Hush,’ she said more forcefully, tugging on Einstein’s lead.
She looked up. Whiskers was closer, hadn’t changed her pace or rhythm at all, just casually stepping towards them, eyes fixed.
Dorothy swallowed.
Whiskers burst into a sprint, Dorothy letting go of Einstein’s lead in shock, lifting the golf club above her head, the jaguar nearly at her, astonishing how fast she could move, legs powering like pistons as she opened her jaws and leapt at Dorothy who swung the driver full into her face, catching her on the side of the head and knocking her off course so that she skidded on the grass and thumped against a tree trunk, before whirling round and growling at them with a throaty noise that Dorothy felt in her guts. Einstein barked through it all, lead trailing behind him as he darted forward and backward, trying to ward off an animal five times larger than him and a hundred times more powerful.
The cat bent its legs and pounced again. Dorothy swung the club, connected with her flank, the jaguar only slightly diverting from her path so that her body smacked into Dorothy and knocked her to the ground, the golf club flying across the grass. Dorothy could smell her, a deep, musky heat and the stink of rotting meat as she opened her jaws. Whiskers clamped down on Dorothy’s arm as she tried to protect her face, teeth sinking into her flesh so deep it felt like they hit bone, a giant paw pressing on her chest as she struggled to breathe and the pain in her forearm was blinding, shockwaves through her body and Einstein still barking and Whiskers emitting a throbbing growl. Dorothy felt overwhelmed with pain and panic and the weight of the animal on top of her and she closed her eyes and felt herself disappear into blackness.